after slamming them as propagandists pink floyd star roger waters reveals the white helmet activist group had tried to lobby his support in the syrian war. somebody was shot in the three have to go to the hospital. when i came in some people grabbed me and started pouring water over my had a russian t.v. channel interviews a syrian boy from a white helmets video that claims to show the aftermath of the chemical attack in duma a child and his father give their account of what happened. clashes break out on the streets of paris as transport strikes continue over president macross labor reforms. and in germany

dozens of refugees confessed to having links with overseas terrorist groups in a controversial tactic to avoid deportation. i'm kate partridge and you're watching the latest headlines here at r.t. international thank you for joining us. the lead singer of rock group pink floyd roger waters says the controversial activist group the white helmets house tried to lobby his support in the syrian war the so-called syria campaign which is linked to the white house sent a musician an e-mail inviting him to a fundraising dinner in the same message the group described the work it claims to be doing in syria the group states its mission is to elevate the voices of syria's peaceful heroes and to help bring peace but waters' wasn't pleased with the invitation. i was quite suspicious after i was invited to that white helmets dinner

now my worst suspicions have been confirmed on the face of it it felt possible that the white helmets were just good people doing good things but now we know they're trying to encourage the west to drop bombs or missiles illegally in syria artie's it goes down after and my colleague andrew farmer in the studio earlier to discuss the group's emails and waters concerns about their activities. it was somewhat of an indirect response to a number of e-mail he received from a different person now it was signed by a man who was described himself as a journalist and also a militant with the syrian white helmets and he apparently arsk for stage time with roger waters at his barcelona gig he wanted to join roger waters on stage and deliver a message apparently on behalf of the white helmets and sent a message or to this children of syria you're not forgotten well apparently at that said gig in barcelona roger waters did this have

a look at home it's. great. reading propaganda if you use. this to the propaganda of the white house and others we would be encouraged to encourage our governments to go and start dropping bombs on syria. i why do you think then that he decided to speak out publicly there well he didn't give a specific reason for this but you got to know who the white helmets are to get an idea they post videos like this marketing themselves as the civil defense group of the say their first responders they save people the show how the pulling people from under the rubble from the alleged syrian government airstrikes but the videos that they are and posting online and somebody else do that for them in those videos they're seen mingling with terrorists for example this is an execution by the all nusra terrorist group and these are the white helmets volunteers clearing up the

execution site so also in other videos they are seen just cheering and generally mingling with terrorists from other groups so possibly that is why roger waters chose to do that to denounce themselves publicly you're not the first celebrity is easy to talk about the white helmet but the other ones that have have taken a different stance well indeed the white helmets the sort of by the line line told . glory when it comes to how western celebrities are talking about them for example he's coldplay a very very popular british band endorsing them and calling them syrian heroes there's another star ben affleck also praising the white house and the list just of goes on really so roger waters he did not stop just denouncing the white house wants the also he also called on his fellow celebrities to stop indorsing the white house and to stop giving praise to them now roger waters is arguably the first

person of such scale to publicly to publicly speak out against the white helmets and the e-mails that we've just seen he provided them to blumenthal and blumenthal is in the contributor so he can pick up the story from here i've known roger waters for several several years he said that he had just grown so frustrated watching the white helmets footage and duma being cited by the u.s. government and the u.k. government pretty much as their only source as their only source of intelligence to justify bombing a sovereign country that he decided to criticize this organization publicly to warn against its all teary or sectarian agenda this should be the stuff of a national scandal in the us the united states government has provided at least twenty three million dollars to the state department to the white helmets while the white helmets work hand in glove with jabot illness or which is the syrian affiliate of the organization that attacked the united states on nine eleven al

qaeda and that is considered a conspiracy in the united states although it's well established so you know i hope that this is that rogers broken the ice here but western media appears to be completely closed off to the facts about the white helmets when we asked the white house mistake comment on this issue and why waiting for a response. meanwhile a correspondent from the russia twenty four television channel says they found a syrian boy seen in the white helmets video that claims to show the aftermath of the alleged chemical attack in duma in an interview the child and his father recall how events unfolded on a police seventh's artie's morag as the of as the details. these harrowing scenes panic fear terror soaked trembling children screaming adults and strange as it may seem many of them had no idea

about what was going on. we were in the basement my mother told me that we had run out of fruit and wouldn't have anything to eat until tomorrow i heard noises outside somebody was shot in that we had to go to the hospital so we went there when i came in some people grabbed me and started pouring water all my had eleven year old has and was one of the apparent victims in the white helmets video here he is after being drenched and sprayed he was found in duma and interviewed by a russian war correspondent. he's fine if a little confused and that's me in the video that's me. yes as were many other kids any child would be terrified ergo the panic which the white helmets were there to film he was eventually found though

by his father who was none the wiser this is the police i didn't hear anything about the chemical attack i was outside but i didn't notice anything further my family was in the hospital. it does make sense poisonous gas would be invisible you'd imagine everybody would want to take precautions especially when you're hungry and they give out food for thought spittle. i went to the hospital walked up stairs and found my wife and children i asked them what had happened and they said you go outside was shouting about some smell and told them to go to the hospital at the hospital they gave dates and cookies to the kids one of the doctors who was reportedly. on shift at the time seemed surprised by the sudden influx some people come to. people in what. they said. we wouldn't think.

of the symptoms the doctor and others did however say that some people came in complaining about difficulty breathing which is common when an explosion destroys a building for example there's a lot of dust makes it difficult to breathe and especially affects people with asthma. people from the white helmets told us about the use of chemical weapons but we saw no sign of that if chemical weapons were used against those people our medical staff would have also been affected. we've sent a request to the white helmets to comment on this but the received no on say yet what we have seen is more and more witnesses coming forward to say there was only panic and no evidence of chemicals and multiple we heard an explosion and somebody

said it was a chemical weapon we ran to where the noise came from and started poolroom water over the people and they seem to be ok and walked away without any help people got so confused somebody started pouring water over people's heads saying they had been a chemical attack i was at the spot with my wife and daughter but none of us experienced any symptoms of chemical poisoning and it's remarkable how these scenes convinced three countries to launch cruise missiles at syria especially remarkable when you realize that so many of the people here had no idea about what was going on only that someone shouted about chemicals. well despite the lack of clarity about what happened in dumas the u.s. and its allies were quick to launch air strikes several syrian facilities were targeted last saturday meanwhile british journalist robert fisk has visited dumas

and interviewed locals he found no signs any chemical attack had taken place former counterterrorism officer charged to bridge things western governments may be starting to doubt their own conclusions journalists have got him on the ground robert fisk is a notable person i'm thinking of there he says and attended by syrian government employees and so on he spoke to ordinary residents and to medical staff who none of whom confirmed the idea that there was a chemical attack we're already i think seeing on detecting science myself that there is a slight backtracking among government statements rowing back slightly saying well actually we weren't completely clear that's why we we were relying on social media we were lying on activists on the ground and that's why we only carried out a limited strike so they're already i think preparing the ground for the possibility at least that is so p c w a port isn't particularly helpful for example it may actually find that there were no trace of chemicals of chemical warfare.

thousands of french public sector workers have been protesting on the streets of paris against president macros labor reforms several groups including transport workers are refusing to back down in their long running strike artie's shiela do bensky reports. this is yet another day of protests to be churning into clashes between the police and the protesters unhappy with many of the reforms that the my own government wants to make and they determined to make every sees heard and it seems that voices are being heard but yet again it's just clashes that what most people are speaking about. cross has that he doesn't care about our movement but if he wasn't afraid at all he would not send so many national police officers here. and happy with the government because the poorest classes are always the ones who are forced to give their weakest are always the ones who are being given today were fighting for public services from medical services with good hospitals and

equipment i don't like the entity of micron's government towards the movements and the problems work is a facing a somewhat so to stick the head of state seems to be deaf judging by his speech at the problem destroys book he thinks that he's in a position of power. we've just come away from the crowd and that's because if you just take a look behind me might see the old look of the people have got their faces covered they wearing black and that's because they known as being the black box of the anti father these are the anti capitalist say it in front of a don't like as a filming them close and that's because the security services might be able to identify them now it's this group of individuals that are the ones that we see clashes as you can see that are throwing project done at the police as the police are coming round and this is something that we have been seeing not just today but

in all of the clashes project just being thrown to optics bricks glass bottles anything they can grow that at the hands of. well we're in the middle of what seems to be a standoff between some of the protesters and the police just take out a look behind me and you can see a row of the police vans and army they're all out there in their riot gear blocking off this particular route and some of the protesters are told sing them now they've also been using as smoke flares to wear to attention to what they're doing that lit fires at some of the bins and they've also been throwing projectiles to wards the police this protest was meant to be about reforms of macaroons government it's once again turned into a clash between the police and

a small group of anti capitalist protesters. the president micro has issued a plea to the strikers saying they should stop holding the country hostage and the police are taking an increasingly tough line in this latest video from paris officers in riot gear are handing demonstrators to the ground and making several arrests we must say thousands also took to the streets for a stop macro munched denouncing the president's reforms it was organized by left wing party leader luke melo show. ok we're in a process where president michael's radicalism has pushed everyone together every week the head of state seems to distract us and go further with reforms so we need to step forward to we know one of those plain evil like this. in one thousand nine hundred five he had to finally step back this is not fair to announce to the people i will.